Eighteen years is a long time to share a life with someone, and Avantika Malik says she was not the one ready to close that chapter. In a new conversation with Soha Ali Khan, she said it was Imran Khan who first suggested time apart — a decision she says she would never have made herself.
What Avantika said
Avantika and Imran were together for 18 years and married for eight before their divorce was formalised. Asked directly whose idea the separation was, Avantika named Imran and kept the answer simple: “It was his decision.” She added that she would not have initiated it, “probably to my own detriment.”
The early days of the separation, she said, felt less like a breakup and more like a bereavement. She described it as the death of the life she had imagined — the future, the family setup and the intimate partnership she expected to last.
Why the grief framing matters
Divorce after a very long relationship often lands as what therapists call ambiguous loss. The person is still alive, but the shared future is gone. Avantika gave that experience public language, which is rare in an industry where separations are usually reduced to whispers or legal updates.
For readers, the takeaway is practical: naming a loss as grief can make it easier to process. It also resists the tabloid urge to pick a villain. Avantika named a fact — Imran asked first — but spent more time on the shared investment than on assigning fault.
Just as telling is the way she closed the thought. She said she is proud of what they built over 18 years, and that she still sees the family they made as a success, whatever shape it takes today. Grief and gratitude, in other words, are not mutually exclusive — a useful lens for anyone navigating a long relationship ending.
A timeline in brief
- Teenage sweethearts: Avantika and Imran began dating as teenagers.
- January 2011: The couple married.
- Daughter Imaara was born during their marriage.
- 2019: They separated after 18 years together and later divorced.
Where Imran is now
Imran has since moved on publicly. He is dating actor and artist Lekha Washington, and the two have made appearances together, including at the Cockroach Janta Party protest in Delhi. Professionally, he returned with a cameo in Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, which opened in January 2026 and is now on Netflix. He is next attached to the romantic comedy Adhure Hum Adhure Tum, alongside Bhumi Pednekar and Gurfateh Pirzada.
For Bollywood watchers, the interview is a rare measured account from one side of a once-quiet couple. Avantika did not hand out blame beyond answering a direct question, and she reframed the loss around what the two built rather than only how it ended.
Source: Hindustan Times
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